Windows 7: Help Partition format - RAW

Hello, I have my bootable hard drive partitioned into C: and D: Recently I was having crazy lockups and problems with various tasks. After process of elimination I deleted the D: volume. Now, I'd like to format it and it wouldn't complete with a full format so I tried 'quick format' and that won't work either. The partition now reads as 'RAW' and I can't seem to do anything with it.

No, I am not trying to recover a thing. I backed up everything that I needed to an external drive. I just want to get the D: partition formatted and usable again.

It is a WD drive and the C: partition is just fine. Can a half of a hard drive go bad???

If I could format it then run chkdsk and mark bad sectors wouldn't that work?



Running Windows 7 Home Premium
two hard drives each partitioned into two

Thank you, Donna

The first thing I would try is downloading WD's diagnostic program to check the drive for errors. It could save you a lot of time.

If, by volume, you mean you deleted the partition, you will have to create a new partition before you can format it:

Partition or Volume - Create New

After creating the new partition, you should be able to format.

As essenbe suggests, running diagnostics is a good idea before you put it back in service.

James

I'm sorry should have said that I did get WD diagnostics and it is kind of crazy to me. The drive checks perfectly healthy. I have been fiddling with a 3rd party utility and I do know now that one of my Windows 7 backup files is corrupt on the D: partition.

I did delete the volume, my PC was running like a champ. Then I created a new volume in the same space and tried to format it. It gives me the volume but the format says "RAW" and it is unusable. It has to be either FAT or NTFS as I am understanding it and that format will not take. Format fails to complete. I don't think it will write over the corrupt backup file.

MS knowledge base says to try 3rd party software. Anybody know of a good one. I did try EASUS but that won't format it either.

Thanks, in the end, I'll probably end up wiping it all and reinstalling from scratch but I am learning from all of this. I did delete the volume again and everything runs so well that I am not in a rush and I am a faithful backup person so I am not in trouble there. Just trying to beat the system I guess.

Partition Wizard's free bootable CD:

Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to boot computer directly to manage partition.

There are instructions for it's use at the link above, but here's a good forum tutorial:

Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD


Let us know how it goes.

James

Another good tool is Parted Magic. It is a live CD and has quite a few tools in the program.

Sounds like an MBR corruption, boot to the Windows 7 DVD select to repair, it should rewrite the MBR, which may be helpful.

You could try to clean the partition:
Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

NOTE: Do not use CLEAN ALL as this will delete all partitions.